4,500 types of potatoes, 500 of chili peppers, 700 of fish. The country has been the best gourmet destination for eight consecutive years, thanks to its biodiversity and indigenous recipes, revisited in fine dining.
Charles De Gaulle wondered how a country with 246 different varieties of cheese could be governed.
The Peruvian governments of the last twelve years, however, of the more than 4,500 varieties of potatoes grown between the Andes and the sea - along with the 500 types of peppers, tubers, and Amazonian herbs - have only thought that they could be a formidable lever of their land a gastronomic destination. Mission accomplished.
Peru, until a little over a decade ago only synonymous with steep mountains and magnificent Inca archaeology, has turned out to be a gourmet attraction. Attract fans from all over and colonize other continents with ceviche. Whether it's London, New York, Los Angeles or Milan, Peruvian restaurants are proliferating and ceviche-mania (raw fish marinated in lemon and red chili) dominates everywhere. For the eighth consecutive year, Peru won recognition as the World's Best Culinary Destination at the World Travel Awards. Now, some may turn up their noses, underlining the great French gastronomic tradition and the extraordinary variety of Italian recipes, but the global success of this fresh, inclusive, multicolored and vigorous cuisine is undeniable. 11 Peruvian restaurants are included in the 50 Best Latin America ranking and two of them, Central and Maido, are respectively in sixth and tenth place in the 50 Best Worlds.
But where does this incredible success come from? The answer is simple: effective convinced teamwork, in which everyone has made their own, putting aside protagonism, ambitions and envy. «It's a beautiful story of sharing», says Paola Miglio Rossi, linguist employed in journalism and editor of the volume Peru: El gusto es Nuestro. “Twelve years ago we emerged from the poisoned season of terrorism: people began to rediscover vast territories of their country that had been off limits for a long time. It has rediscovered tastes, ingredients, and traditions buried for years and has returned to be proud of its own identity, even the culinary one".
The chefs who had gone to Europe have begun to return, first of all, Gastón Acurio, the acknowledged father of the Peruvian gastronomic renaissance. Pedro Schiaffino led the way, introducing a tasting menu based on local products. Then came Mistura, the great food fair, and haute cuisine. Today 59 percent of tourists visit Peru for its cuisine and, last year, the government estimated the business related to gastronomy at around 1.5 billion dollars, double in 2013. So we asked Paola to lead us on a virtual journey through products, places, cooks and the future. Starting from Lima, the capital. «Until a decade ago, those who came to Lima stayed for a maximum of one night. Time to organize the transfer to Machu Picchu or Cusco Peru. Today we come with an agenda already full of addresses and often after weeks of booking dinners in the most popular places ».
The double stage from Maido and Central is not to be missed. The latter is Virgilio Martínez's restaurant, a witness to heroic Andean agriculture. Without a lawyer, Martínez is an idol of food critics all over the world as well as a point of reference for anthropologists. His philological and at the same time phantasmagoric cuisine manages to dissolve the enchanted atmospheres of the most inaccessible peaks and the depth of the sea abysses in the dishes. Its menu is divided by altitudes, depending on the places from which the raw materials come, it brings together a kaleidoscope of flavors and knowledge. In sixteen dishes a journey-discovery of the entire country. Maido is, on the other hand, the epitome of the nikkei influence. "It is not only Creole cuisine that mixes", recalls the journalist who is also one of the three representatives of the 50 Best in Latin America. «All our dishes are the result of an immense melting pot: we have African, Arab, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and even German influences». Mitsuharu Tsumura's restaurant proposes a cuisine that is an understatement to define fusion: as Tsumura says, it is «constant flow, it makes the villages sing on the stove». Unthinkable to leave Lima without making a visit to Astrid y Gastón, by Gastón Acurio, where it all began, Costanera 700 by Yaquir Sato, Mó.Bistró by Matías Cillóniz (specialized in vegetarian dishes), El Mercado by Rafael Osterling and Kjolle by Pía León, Martínez's chef wife.
Second obligatory stop: Suasi, the only private island of Lake Titicaca. Located four hours by boat from the city of Puno, it is a unique naturalistic destination. There is only one hotel on the island, Isla Suasi, a large country house surrounded by terraces and gardens. Wood stoves and gabled ceilings where large skylights open onto which a hail of stars overlooks at night. «Ideal for forgetting your cell phone», assures Paola. Here the gastronomic experience is familiar: quinoa, native potatoes, goose (a tuber, not the animal), organic cheeses and trout, washed down with Pisco. Then we move in the footsteps of the god Pachacámac, an archaeological area perhaps less known than the other sites linked to the Inca culture, but of great value. It was the place dedicated to oracles and the creator god: majestic truncated pyramids, and temples, but also squares and palaces. A thriving center of aggregation that attracted thousands of pilgrims already in pre-Inca times. Just one kilometer from the ocean and, therefore, an opportunity to dive into the multiple universes of ceviche, taking care not to mistake the rocoto for a tomato. Despite having the same color and texture, the rocoto is the deadliest of the Peruvian peppers and even the locals avoid its seeds to avoid the risk of igniting without remedy.
Finally Cusco and, above all, Mil. Here it is true magic, according to Paola Miglio. Mil is the restaurant built by Virgilio Martínez at 3,500 meters, on the Andean peaks overlooking the scenic Moray archaeological park, not far from Cusco. "In this place, ancestral cuisine, research, technique, hospitality and sharing are mixed in a complex project that goes far beyond what ends up on the plate", explains Paola. Martínez manages to win a risky challenge: to capture the essence of a place. “Anyone who goes up there realizes it: guests are invited to arrive in the morning, visit the crops, meet the communities, and experience firsthand the direct and continuous relationship with the populations. This is the new luxury for me, the uniqueness of the experience ».
The miracle of Peruvian gastronomic success lies precisely in the solid bond with the producers. "Our greatest wealth is biodiversity," says sociologist, chef and researcher Isabel Álvarez Novoa. «Especially in a standardized world, prey to ephemeral culinary fads. We must preserve it at any cost ». According to Pedro Schiaffino, the future of Peruvian cuisine will still come from the Amazonian forests: a treasure chest with 700 species of fish and 162 varieties of fruit. And also from indigenous recipes, revisited with fine dining techniques. Whether they are the Juanes (the classic fish or chicken stews wrapped in bijao leaves), the green banana tacacho or the incicapi, the traditional soup is eaten for breakfast, made with peanuts, garlic, cassava, corn, cumin, and leaves of Sacha culantro.
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